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~— Culver-Stockton 
Quarterly 


AUEY, 1926 


A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION 
OF THE WORKS OF 


JOSE MARIA DE PEREDA | 
: (SECTION 1) 


Rye 
\yan 
MAURINE MAYS 


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Published by 
CULVER-STOCKTON COLLEGE 
Canton, Missouri 
NUMBER 3 





Che Culver- Stockton Quarterly 


A Journal Devoted to Research sa Study, in the Arts ae Sciences, as Members 
of the Faculty of Culver-Stockton College 

















Votume II JULY, 1926 NUMBER 3 




















A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE 
WORKS OF JOSE MARIA DE PEREDA 


(Section [) 
By Maurine Mays, M. A., Professor of Modern Languages 


Introduction 


José Maria de Pereda, in many respects the greatest 
of the modern Spanish realists, was an ardent reaction- 
ist, satirizing modernism and exalting the forms of the 
early society of Spain. He had no faith in social evo- 
lution and progress. Visible in all his works is an inflex- 
ible conservatism set against all innovations as certain 
to bring evil. 

It shall be my purpose to analyze his works in terms 
of his social philosophy and to demonstrate that Pereda 
represents merely a type which is a product ‘of a given 
social situation and which has in the past always ap- 
peared and can always be expected to appear in that simi- 
lar social situation. 

I 


THE BACKGROUND 


Pereda might have said of his works, as Goethe said 
of his own, that they were a series of confessions. Many 
writers have social philosophies, or esteem certain prin- 
ciples, which they set forth in the words of the charac- 
ters they depict. They disparage some ideas by mak- 
ing them the principles upheld by rascality. They ar- 
dently advocate other ideas by making them the prin- 
ciples upheld by piety and morality. The characters of 
such novelists are mere mouth pieces by which the au- 


thor’s ideas are advanced. 
[61] 


Pereda’s education never led him far into theories of 
political and social science. His peculiar aversion to 
scientific learning particularly disqualified him for an 
appreciation of such science. In his views of society he 
was guided by his heart rather than by scientific truths. 
His intense preference for the simple and unspoiled 
greatly prejudiced him against the tendencies that made 
for destroying that simplicity—namely, the tendencies 
of progress and modern civilization. Thus the social 
theories expressed in his novels are often thin and irreg- 
ular, and in his treatment of social problems sentiment 
dominates the lessons of experience. 


Above all things Pereda advocated simplicity in liv- 
ing. A simple life was his social philosophy. Simplicity 
in living meant preserving as nearly as possible the prim- 
itive patriarchal society.’ It meant restraint in ambi- 
tions; it meant moderation in desires. Progress and 
growth toward modernism effected a downfall of the pa- 
triarchal system and a violation of restraint and modera- 
tion. Since those things which were the outgrowth of 
modern civilization were directly opposed to simplicity, 
Pereda’s attitude toward modern progress was hostile 
and reactionary. 


This reactionary attitude must be explained by the 
circumstances of his own life in the most northern prov- 
ince of Spain. Pereda was born on February 6, 1833, in 
the province of Santander. This province, hemmed in 
by the ocean and the Cantabrian mountains, isolated 
from the rest of Spain and from Europe in general, had 
conserved a primitive form of society. Here life was 
in the fashion of old Spain, “severely patriarchal in its 
simplicity, lived modestly and tranquilly, without dan- 
gerous innovations”.” In many instances Pereda shows 
the complete isolation of this section of Spain. For exam- 
ple in the incident connected with the return of a ship to 


1. In all references to the patriarchal system may it be understood that 
Pereda does not use the term in its presently accepted sociological sense. He 
represents it as political or communal rather than familial in organization. 

2. El Diario Montafies, Santander, May 1, 1906. 


[62] 


Santander, the principal city of the isolated region, he 
reveals the degree to which this section was excluded 
from contact with the rest of the world. Travel to and 
from this province was not extensive because it required 
a long, wearisome journey on horseback over rough 
mountain trails, and naturally the sea became the chief 
means of access and egress.* The coming of a ship was 
a great event in the small communities, for its coming 
brought to these people a touch of another world known 
only in their imaginations. As soon as a ship was seen 
far off, all the inhabitants gathered on the quay: the 
priest, the shoemaker, the rich, and the poor. There 
they waited and eagerly greeted returning sailors, en- 
graving in their memories the weird stories they told 
of a strange world. 


Pereda’s boyhood was spent amid the peaceful, rustic 
surroundings of the villages of this isolated section. 
When he was about ten years old his family moved to 
Santander which, although the metropolis, had, never- 
theless, conserved the original simplicity of the north- 
ern province. Here he received his primary education. 
In 1852 he was sent to Madrid to pursue his studies. 
In his two years’ stay in the capital of Spain he gained a 
considerable knowledge of the political and social condi- 
tions of the time. In those two years he became thor- 
oughly disgusted with Madrid and that part of Spain 
into which modern tendencies were rapidly advancing. 
There was foundation for his disgust. Let it be recalled 
that during the years in which Pereda lived, Spain pre- 
sented a picture of disorganization and confusion, for, 


8. In Pefias Arriba, p. 23, this toilsome journey is described at length. 
The young man, the principal character of the story, was making the journey 
from Madrid into the mountains to the home of his fathers. Beyond the last 
railroad point was still a whole day-and-night’s journey, to be made on horse- 
back over a narrow mountain trail. On one side rose the steep bare side of the 
mountain; on the other yawned an abyss through whose narrow passes sounded 
the continuous roar of maddened waters. He climbed a steep mountain, 
crossed a peaceful valley, only to find an even greater mountain towering in 
front of him. It seemed an endless climbing up and down. At night the darkness 
was so intense that travel was extremely dangerous. A stranger never attempted 
to make this journey without a native of the region as guide. In De Tal Palo 
Tal Astilla, p. 3, there is a like description of the mountain trip. The journey 
of the doctor from the lower part of the district to the extreme heights is pic- 
tured as a tortuous and perilous journey. 

[63] 


it was in the throes of political passions and internal 
revolutions. 

In order to understand Pereda’s disgust it is neces- 
sary to be acquainted with the history of Spain in that 
age. When Napoleon autocratically overran Spain in 1808 
the Spanish people suddenly awoke to their national pride 
and spirit and began their war of independence from the 
foreign usurper. This war put into the hearts of the peo- 
ple the germs of political agitation and aspiration for 
political rights. For nearly seventy years Spain was torn 
with strife. The desire for political rights took form in 
the Constitution of 1812, a constitution far in advance 
of the country’s need. Those who created the greatest 
agitation for a constitutional monarchy were the middle 
class (if it may be called a middle class) in the great 
sea ports. The mass of people did not know the mean- 
ing of a constitution, therefore they were not concerned 
with a constitutional struggle. In 1814 Ferdinand VII 
took the throne. He set aside the constitution and re- 
éstablished absolutism. There were a few outbreaks and 
revolts in his reign. About 1820 a revolution restored 
the constitution of 1812 for a brief period. In 1823 oc- 
curred another French invasion. The Holy Alliance sent 
France into Spain to settle affairs, and soon absolutism 
was restored and Ferdinand remained in power until his 
death in 1833. 

The legal heir to the throne was Ferdinand’s daugh- 
ter, Isabel, a child of three. She was proclaimed queen 
by the assent of the majority of the Spanish people, with 
her mother, Maria Cristina, as regent. Carlos, brother 
of Ferdinand, a representative of absolutism, claimed the 
throne and was supported by a powerful party whose 
chief strength was in the Viscayan provinces, Navarre 
and Catalonia. The first Carlist war lasted until 18309. 
The absolutism which Maria Cristina inherited from Fer- 
dinand was tempered by a desire for the support of the 
Liberals, and as the struggle continued there was an ap- 
proach to constitutional forms of government. Maria 


[64] 


Cristina was lacking in sincerity and she was unscrup- 
ulous and capricious. There was a succession of short 
lived ministries owing their existence to royal caprice 
and political mutinies. In the chaos the only sign of 
progress was the liberal regime which succeeded in forc- 
ing itself upon Maria Cristina. Her government contin- 
ued until 1840 when she was driven from the country. 
For three years Espartero acted as regent. His regency 
was a period in which liberal tendencies continued to pre- 
vail. In 1843 Isabel was declared of age, but soon proved 
herself an inefficient ruler. With her accession the ab- 
solutist policy of the governmient became marked. Ab- 
solutism lasted until 1854, when the crisis came. There 
was such wild disorder that the queen recalled Espartero, 
which meant a more liberal form of government. But 
in 1856, just two years later, she dismissed Espartero 
and named O’Donnell the prime minister. Again ab- 
solutism was renewed and continued until the year 1866. 
In that year a movement was launched which drove 
Isabel from the country. This was the time when Lib- 
eralism might have shown its worth, but again it failed. 
It was a period of socialism, anarchism, and military dic- 
tatorships—universal tumult. Finally in 1875 Alfonso 
XII was made king and Spain became a constitutional 
monarchy. In the absence of a ruler the Carlists renewed 
their activity, but Alfonso took command, and in 1876 
the second Carlist war was ended. With its end the last 
hope of absolutism died, and peace and order were finally 
restored in Spain. Liberalism had failed to establish a 
government that could govern; it had failed to provide 
an honest government; it had failed to provide for the 
debts and to regulate the finances. It was these failures 
which especially impressed Pereda. 

Periods such as these always yield sponsors of reac- 
tions, persons who credit the disturbances of a transition 
period to the inherent nature of the proposed new order. 
They long for the security of the “golden age” and pro- 
pose to return to it. The failure in the first attempt at 


[65] 


an application of a given political theory is interpreted 
as evidence of its unworkability. Pereda belongs to this 
class of persons. Witnessing the corruption practiced 
on all sides, the crude and gross demagogism, and the 
odious stage of degradation, it is not surprising that his 
sympathies were with the old forms, that he took a dis- 
like to liberal or democratic government, and that he 
was strongly opposed to what the world calls democracy 
and modern progress. 

Disgusted with progress as he saw it.in the capital 
city he returned to Santander in 1854 where, with brief 
intervals of absence, he spent the rest of his life.* Pereda 
was fortunate in the possession of ample wealth which 
permitted him a lettered ease. Prompted by such favor- 
able conditions he early began to write. His first lit- 
erary ventures in the form of sketches of local types 
and manners were originally published in the home pa- 
pers and later collected in a volume and given to the pub- 
fic under the name of Escenas Montaneses. This has ta- 
ken rank as one of the most important and characteristic 
of his works. Asa costumbrista, or writer of short stories 
suffused with local color, he revealed himself a writer 
of power and pathos. After several efforts, which were 
literary practice, he undertook the novel. The works 
of his first period are: Los Hombres de Pro (1872), 
El Buey Suelto (1877), Don Gonzalo Gonszdlez de la 
Gongalera (1878), De Tal Palo Tal Astilla (1879). The 
two defects of these are a controversial spirit in social 
and political questions and a lack of evenness in struc- 
ture. To the second group belong his masterpieces: E] 
Sabor de la Tierruca (1881), Sotileza (1884), Pedro 
Sdnchez (1883), La Puchera (1889), Penas Arriba 
(1895). In these Pereda stands forth as an undisputed 
master of his craft. With the exception of Pedro Sanchez 
these works have a natural setting in the Moftana, and 
bear his most personal message. In this second era were 


4. In 1871 he was sent to Madrid as Carlist representative of his province 
to the Cortes. The cultivated gentleman of letters, the high-minded hidalgo, 
finding himself not in his element, brought his political career to a speedy close. 


[66] 


written three novels, La Montdlvez (1888), Nubes de 
Estio (1891), Al Primer Vuelo (1890), which do not be- 
long clearly to either the first or second group since they 
share the defects of the one and the virtues of the other. 
These are fruitful sources for revealing the author’s atti- 
tude on the great social questions of the time, and in 
them we find his preachments against contemporary con- 
ditions. 

In 1897 he was received into the Spanish Academy, 
an honor due one of the most brilliant and original of 
national writers. His literary work virtually ended with 
his volume of 1895, Pefias Arriba, the most worthy and 
finished product of his career. He died March 1, 1906. 


[67] 


I] 
SOCTATPATILTEODE 


Most of Pereda’s works have for their setting the 
isolated northern province of Spain where were found 
the simplicity and moderation that characterized for 
Pereda the best form of society. Such well-defined geo- 
graphical barriers as those of that province naturally 
tend toward isolation because they guard society from 
all outside influence. 

Given a type of society, isolation makes for its per- 
manency and solidarity. Isolation is the cue to the un- 
derstanding of Pereda’s social philosophy as depicted in 
his novels. It excludes the society he idealizes from 
communication and association with the outside world. 
Pereda’s ideal was Spanish insularity, isolation so com- 
plete that the social group had no regard for foreign 
opinion and no regard for the course of the world’s affairs. 

Pereda’s views were not unusual, for Pereda is a 
type found in every society. Always may be found those 
who believe the existing society ‘the best and who resist 
all social change in that society. In every progressive 
movement there are some who are conservative, who ad- 
vocate the maintenance of the status quo, who believe 
that society is in its finest state, and who ardently oppose 
any change. 

Pereda’s attitude may be described as ethnocentric. 
By this term is meant blind loyalty to one’s native group. 
An individual who travels extensively does not tend to- 
ward ethnocentrism for he has had an opportunity of 
comparing other countries and other sections of the world 
with his own and of discovering that there are other parts 
just as good as that he calls home. Pereda had travelled 
little. His farthest journey had been to Madrid, and 
he had visited Madrid at a most unpropitious time. 
Hence the society in which he grew up was practically 
the only society with which he had acquaintance. Know- 


[68] 


ing no other, he idealized that society in which he lived 
and recognized none as better. 

Ethnocentrism is not an archaic trait, but is the very 
foundation of modern patriotism and religious loyalties. 
Every nationality demonstrates this principle. When 
the American says “America first” he is saying no more 
than “America is the best country in all the world; all 
other countries are inferior.” The French proverb “Ce 
qui n’est pas clair, n’est pas francais”! and the 
German “Deutschland tiber alles’” are like statements ex- 
pressing the idea of the superiority of one nation. These 
statements are not reasoned out and thought through; 
they are convictions about which nations concede no ex- 
planation or discussion. Accordingly, Pereda admitted 
no questioning of his conviction that this northern prov- 
ince of Spain in which he lived represented a society su- 
perior to all others. 

In accordance with his intense nationalism Pereda 
desired that there be no outside influence in Spain or 
any contact with foreign nations. He rarely mentions 
another country by name. In Bocetos al Temple he 
speaks of the United States as an immense depository 
of all the great rascals of the world, a country that was 
nothing more than a labyrinth of big things and bad 
things.’ Always with contempt he speaks of the “indi- 
anos’, those persons who went to America and, having 
amassed great wealth there, returned to Spain to live in 
splendor. This aversion to the indiano was not peculiar 
in a man with a viewpoint such as Pereda had, for the 
returned indiano had no place in the social order and 
was the cause of a peculiar social problem. 

Pereda’s views regarding the indiano are consistent 
with his whole social philosophy. In this case as in oth- 
ers his reasoning seems valid and is supported by gen- 


1. ‘That which is not clear is not French.”’ 

2. “Germany above all.”’ 

3. P. 237. In EI Buey Suelto, p. 345, he satirically mentions a Spanish 
colonist ‘“‘que alardea de no creer en Dios porque estuvo en los Estados Unidos 
seis dias.”’ He contemptuously mentions Cuba when he speaks of emigration, 
for many Spanish went to Cuba to seek their fortunes. He never specifically 
mentions France or any other European country, but in general statements he 
makes plain his dislike of foreign nations. [69] 


erally accepted sociological principles. Granting him that 
which he assumes as his major premise one can do no 
less than agree with him in his argument. 


Any contact or communication of long duration be- 
tween individuals of separate and distinct groups brings 
an exchange of thoughts and ideas and a change in these 
individuals. An individual entering a new group comes 
into contact with traditions and influences entirely new 
to him. Assimilation is tlie process which refers to the 
growing alike in thoughts, character, and institutions. 
It is a psychological process to be distinguished from 
amalgamation or blood mingling through intermarriage. 
The results of this intellectual process are far more last- 
ing than the biological ones. The changes involved in 
assimilation are subtle and gradual. It is an unconscious 
process. A person is incorporated into the common life 
of a group before he is aware and with little conception 
of the change that is taking place. 

Thus a person who left one of the villages of north- 
ern Spain and settled in America would unconsciously be 
assimilated by the new group. By this process of inter- 
penetration and fusion he acquired the attitudes, senti- 
ments, and traditions of other individuals and, by shar- 
ing their experience and their history, became incorpo- 
rated with them in a common life. Therefore when he. 
returned to Spain he no longer fitted in with the old 
group, but had to be re-assimilated. In the process of his 
re-assimilation he would unconsciously communicate to 
the group new forms, attitudes, sentiments which they 
in turn, through unconscious imitation, would accept. 
Thus the indiano disturbed the security of the group, 
shocked the habits of thought, and brought a certain 
degree of disintegration by presenting foreign moral pat- 
terns. 

Pereda’s argument is based upon the premise which 
may be briefly stated thus: the society and social order 
as seen in the villages and more isolated provinces of 
Spain are the best that can be obtained, and any change 


[70] 


is necessarily for worse and not for better. For this rea- 
son, i. e., that he was a menace to the continuity of society 
as it then existed, Pereda opposed the indiano. Thus it 
is his premise that cannot be accepted and not his argu- 
ment. 

A typical indiano is found in the character of Don 
Gonzalo who, because he was ambitious and aspiring to 
show and ostentation, emigrated to the United States 
to seek wealth. In the projects he has in mind as he 
comes back to his birthplace there is evidence of the dis- 
turbing element he will become in the society to which 
he returns. There is also evidence of the foundation for 
Pereda’s fears that the returned indiano would commu- 
nicate new attitudes, feelings, and social forms to the 
group. Like all other indianos Don Gonzalo has the de- 
sire to make his home village more modern and progres- 
sive: “Soteruco will be as I left it, half of it fallow 
and half to be worked over; the people are like melons 
walking on two feet by a miracle; a priest who fills their 
heads full of stories; and a sefior who has a few lands 
and a big house and so thinks himself destined to guide 
the people . . . but I’ll present myself with a half dozen 
English trunks; I will buy many lands and build a big 
house. The people will take off their hats to me half 
a league away. Everywhere I will introduce modern cus- 
toms; I will reform the manner of thinking of those 
backward people.’”* 


Pereda, therefore, is antagonistic to emigration: 
first, because the returned emigrant, or indiano, brings 
new social knowledge which he communicates to the 
group, thus changing the nature of society; secondly, 
because he is not in sympathy with one who is not con- 
tent to stay where he was born. He criticizes the desire 
of youth to go to America to seek a fortune as a futile 
and dangerous dream. He disapproves of discontent so 
poignant that it terminates in leaving one’s native land, 
subjecting one to the evils of a world that is full of new 


4, Don Gonzalo Gonzalez de la Gonzalera, p. 112. 


[71] 


and extravagant ideas. He holds to the theory that by 
digging in the corner of his own garden one may find 
a treasure which another may seek in vain the world 
over, and that the way to obtain the greatest value of 
life is to limit one’s interest to that which he has at 
home.’ In the story, 4 Las Indias,° the mother, as she 
returns to her home after seeing her son depart for Amer- 
ica, “feels in her heart such grief and bitterness that she 
can do no less than apostrophize the earth she is tread- 
ing, seeing the ruggedness and the apparent sterility 
that are driving her son from her to search in a far coun- 
try for that which the motherland cannot give him.” 
“An unjust charge,’ exclaims Pereda, “which perpetu- 
ally in the mouths of such ignorant ones sustains in 
this province the plague of emigration.’” 

This antagonism towards foreign nations may be 
styled race prejudice. Race prejudice results from iso- 
lation and tends to reénforce it. Pereda’s ethnocentrism 
so influenced his international attitude that he wished 
Spain to remain insular and individualistic, and he was 
prejudiced against all non-Spanish contacts, against ev- 
erything which would tend to modernize the existing 
society and destroy its individuality.’ He preferred to 
keep the people uncontaminated by foreign influence and 
thus to foster and preserve the local and racial pride. 

The ideals of Pereda were embodied in the princi- 
ples which Don Ramon of the novel Don Gonzalo em- 
ployed in the guidance of the country folk of his com- 
munity. These villagers were content with their sur- 
roundings, they were peaceful, and they were happy in 
the form of society that then existed in the village. To 
keep them in this state of simplicity and content he tried 
to protect them from all communication with, and all 


knowledge of, affairs beyond the mountains that would 


5. Pefias Arriba, p. 159. 

6. Escenas Montaneses, p. 96. 
am bids 

8. In El Sabor de la Tierruca, p. 84, one of his characters laments that 
“man is degenerating day by day, and soon will be ended those virtues that 
made Spaniards of other times model gentlemen without fault or defect. No 
longer is there any faith in the old or any true love for the fatherland.” 


[72] 


tend to disturb that tranquillity and simplicity. So in 
the “‘tertulias” or nightly gatherings of the villagers in 
Don Ramon’s kitchen, held for the purpose of making 
plans and discussing town problems, he discouraged all | 
comment concerning what took place in Madrid. 


One evening a villager, very curious and interested 
in things that did not concern him, asked Don Ramon 
about certain affairs of the nation of which he had heard 
some rumors. Don Ramon reminded him that in his 
house it was forbidden to speak of politics, and explained 
to him that such rumors were not reliable, since most 
of the notices were false or at least only half true, thrown 
out like sugar plums by crafty politicians in order to 
provoke unrest and discontent. And, he persisted, there 
in those sections society existed in a form too precious 
to be disturbed by the flashes and thunderings of progress 
elsewhere.” 


Since education might influence this seclusion and 
isolation from the world and bring with it modern ten- 
dencies, Pereda is scornful of learning. He is contemp- 
tuous of the egotist who affects to possess a large amount 
of knowledge and who likes to air that knowledge. Pe- 
reda believes that much learning of any kind other than 
that which is specifically essential to earning a livelihood - 
is not only a waste of time, but a positive detriment to 
him who possesses it. For learning, he maintains, brings 
to him who would otherwise live simply and moderately 
a spirit of unrest and discontent and makes of him an 
element at variance with the rest of the social group. 
This lack of content and the discordant element thus 
engendered, Pereda contends, contribute to what he calls 
a corrupt society.’° Pereda clearly manifests his attitude 
toward learning when he says, ‘There is nothing that 
hampers one so much as learning” and “the desire of 
learning is nothing more than a keenness there is in peo- 


9. Don Gonzalo Gonzalez, p. 34. 


10. These influences he believes to be unsound and corrupt: first, because 
discontent would lead some of the simple villagers to the city; secondly, be- 
cause to some it would suggest changes at home. 


[73] 


ple to mix up in something in which they have no busi- 
Mess. ca} 

In the words of Don Baldomero, an old philosopher, 
he further ridicules learning and demonstrates that it is 
an unnecessary achievement. “The trouble with learn- 
ing is in the thing itself, which is so valueless. Let a 
wise man say, after searching for twenty years, hidden 
away behind his telescope, ‘I see in the sky one little 
star more’,—what does it matter when half the stars is 
more than enough. Let him say that a comet is going 
to appear next month. We'll see it anyway if it appears, 
and if we don’t see it of what use was the announce- 
ment? Of what value to know that the sun weighs so 
many millions of kilograms! Let someone say that Aris- 
totle or Plato said suchiand ‘such a thinos (a eee 
one hears opinions, disputes, and arguments! Is not this 
learning foolish, ridiculous, and stupid? Let man be 
accustomed to live with that which he has in reach and 
you will see that he does not in the least value this clamor 
of scientific conquest with which the present century is 
strutting so much.” 

Likewise he reveals his opinion of scientific conquests 
and the value to be received from them when he suggests 
that scientists themselves, those of greatest wisdom, 
often tremble at the dykes they have broken and are 
frightened at the ravages of the waters they have loos- 
ened.” Through one of his characters he scornfully dis- 
dismisses the Darwinian theory of man as beneath the 
dignity of discussion."* He contemptuously declares that 
“the wisest men have been those who have made the 
greatest errors.’”’” 

In Dr. Pefiarrubia of De Tal Palo Tal Astilla Pereda 
presents a typical man of science. It is in this novel that 
Pereda treats most extensively of men of learning, shows 


his disrespect for such men, and points out that science 


11. El Sabor de la Tierruca, p. 31. 
LZ LIC sy pee ts 

13. De Tal Palo Tal Astilla, p. 164. 
14. Tipos Trashumantes, p. 315. 
15. El Buey Suelto, p. 219. 


is an achievement which results in evil rather than in 
good. This doctor, through long devotion to physical 
science, had become an atheist. Upholding the prepos- 
terous beliefs and standards gained from the study of 
medical science, he had become a discordant individual 
within a group of harmonious people. So uncongenial 
and non-conformable had this so-called learning made 
him that he could not be assimilated by the society in 
which he placed himself. Rather, he was as completely 
isolated from the social group as though geographical 
barriers kept him from communication with the group. 
He was feared, distrusted, and disparaged by the people 
of the community. In Pereda’s opinion this state of non- 
conformity to the other members of society was due to 
one cause—too much modern science. To be content 
with things as they were without trying to delve into the 
scientific why and wherefore, to accept conditions un- 
questioningly, and to have no interest in the absurdities 
of science, insured simplicity in the social group and har- 
mony of individuals within that group. Only upon these 
conditions, he alleged, was based a meritorious society 
like that of Santander and of Old Spain. 

Throughout his works Pereda is unsparing in his 
sarcasm towards doctors, lawyers, and men of great learn- 
ing.“® Physicians he eyes critically, ready to denounce 
them on the least provocation. He admits the need of 
their medical aid, but he does not recognize the necessity 
of scientific research in their profession. Lawyers he 
look upon as political rascals ready to exploit the people 
at all times. 


In this illustration is manifested Pereda’s claim that 
the society of old Spain is best preserved by scorning 


16. This is one of the contradictory points in Pereda’s nature. Though not 
a scientist he was widely read and possessed a broad cultural knowledge, be- 
ing well acquainted with French, English, and Italian letters. Various allu- 
sions to the classics and the classical writers prove Pereda’s acquaintance with 
them. His mother was an intelligent woman and devoted to literature. Some 
of his most intimate friends were men of learning and of great literary achieve- 
ment. There is Galdés for example, who was extremely progressive, desiring 
modern tendencies to invade the most excluded and isolated sections of Spain. 
He felt that Spain needed the scientist, the engineer, and the man with pro- 
gressive ideas. Deep affection between two men of such fundamentally dif- 
ferent views is exceptional. 
[75] 


the professions that require great learning and by adher- 
ing to the practical professions instead: Don Pedro, the 
great sea captain of the village of Coteruco, seeks advice 
upon the choice of a profession for his son. He is not 
able to decide whether it shall be that of a doctor, law- 
yer, or literary man. Don Venancio upholds Pereda’s 
theories in advising him that book learning is the pest 
of the world; that it is mere humbug which brings naught 
but wretchedness with it; that a father ought to aspire 
to something worthier and more solid for his son. He 
proclaims commerce to be the best and most worthy ca- 
reer for the youth because commerce is the very soul of 
the villages. When the father suggests that in choos- 
ing such a profession there is the risk that his son may 
arrive at old age without having seen any of the world 
or having learned anything of all that which is in it and 
that is taught in it, the only reply of Don Venancio is 
one sarcastic word, ‘‘Nonsense!’*" 

Not alone for learned professions and physical 
science does Pereda show his contempt, but for anything 
approaching a social science and a social law. By “social 
law” it is understood that the term aims at nothing more 
than a description or an explanation of the manner in 
which humanity may be expected to behave; it foretells 
the behavior of an individual by means of a general rule 
of the behavior of all humanity. It is nothing more 
than a summing up of regularities of occurrence. Pereda 
dispraises such a formula as sad folly. He maintains 
that all men are not alike and that, therefore, that social 
law which applies to one may not apply to another.*® 

Distrustful and critical of modern tendencies, re- 
luctant to admit progress to that section of Spain which 
he loved and of which he wrote, he advocated the patri- 
archal system that had few wants and displayed sim- 


17. Sotileza, p. 168. 


18. “‘‘As if all men were molded in the same mold and with clay in equal 
doses and quantities. As if the pin prick that scarcely makes bloody the skin 
of one person were not in another a wound that reaches the heart’ is the 
statement he makes in El Sabor de la Tierruca, p. 58. 


[76] 


plicity in living.” He believed that such conditions could 
only be found in the rural sections, close to Nature, far 
removed from the temptations of the city, which pro- 
duced conditions discordant with simplicity. Therefore, 
feeling that it was responsible for the evils and vices of 
the society of the day, he was hostile to the modern city. 
In its squalor, its splendor, its evils, and its violation of 
social laws he saw the result of departing from the simple - 
life. Sane living he finds impossible in the city. As a 
consequence he condemns the city as the cause of all the 
social problems. He believed the salvation of society to 
rest with those who lived in the towns and villages where 
there were not the competition and vice that existed in 
those centers of progress and more modern civilization. 


This was no new philosophy that Pereda advanced. 
It is precisely the idea that Oliver Goldsmith set forth 
in his Deserted Village. Both Goldsmith and Pereda 
glorified the homes of their youth. Perhaps they were 
not able to see so much wrong in the new order, but for 
the old they had a blind loyalty and deep affection. Lovy- 
ing the village as they did, principally because of its 
~childhood associations, they glorified it and exalted it as 
superior to the city. Goldsmith, like Pereda, lamented the 
passing of the village for the industrial or factory town. 
He protested that the village possessed the conditions 
that made for a good society; he bewailed the life of the 
city as compared with the simple and wholesome condi- 
tions to be found in the villages; he contended that not 
in the immoral cities but only in the villages could be 
developed individuals and institutions that constituted 
a stable and a better society. His poem furnishes attrac- 
tive pictures of simple, kind, noble characters like the 
parson and the school master, and descriptions of simple 
country scenes. He presents these in such a manner as 
to show their superior value to society. 


19. In Escenas Montafeses, p. 221, he expresses his view: “I am a 
fanatical admirer of the patriarchal life and of the pleasures of the country. 
Far from me the noise of a false world, dry affection, and the materialism of 
civilization.’”’ This statement sounds suspiciously like Rousseau Cf. his Back 
to Nature movement. 

[77] 


Thomas Gray also expressed the same thoughts and 
feelings in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 
In a sympathetic way he presents the lives of the simple 
village folk, showing the great advantages, the fortune, 
the happiness, the recompense that came to the “even 
tenor of their way” and he praises the life of the folk 
who live in the rural sections, far from the ignoble strife 
of the crowd and “the shrines of luxury and pride.” 

Pereda particularly gives a picture of the depravity 
of city life in Pedro Sdnchez in which he so graphically 
and so assiduously portrays the vices of Madrid.” The 
capital city of the nation, with its flagrant abuses of the 
principles of humanity, with its strife and revolution, 
with its immoral customs and its depraved atmosphere, 
was the center of disintegrating social forces. It is in 
this novel that he, who so idealizes the past, hurls his 
greatest criticism at Modernism and its results as he 
found them to be in cities. 

The same distrust of cities is displayed in one of the 
stories of Escenas Montatieses. The principal character, 
Don Silvestre, had never been away from the ancestral 
home. But he had imagined and dreamed of all the great-* 
ness and glory of the city. When at last came the oppor- 
tunity for him to visit Madrid he found only disillusion 
and disappointment. Of all that which he sought, of all 
that which was promised, what did he find? Only suf- 
focating heat, noise of carriages, the danger of being 
trampled down in the street, the passion of monopolizing 
for self, the vandalism of peddlers, the inhospitality of 
everybody, materialism, and the usury of civilization. 
Pereda adds that the good man, because of his rusticity 
and simple education, did not see the depth of evils; if 
he were losing his illusion at the surface of the world 
what would happen to him seeing the very bottom of its 
tempestuous recesses? Don Silvestre voices his disap- 
pointment in this manner: “From my kitchen two as- 


20. Pereda was in Madrid in 1854, the year of a revolution. So his 


acquaintance with the city was at its very worst time, in its worst stage of 
conflict and corruption. 


[78] 


pects of the city interested me: as a center in which 
were elaborated the politics in which I so blindly be- 
lieved, and as a fatherland common to all men loving 
social liberty. Very few days did I need, in spite of my 
little experience in the world, to learn that first, polli- 
tics here are a farce and, secondly, that Madrid as a tol- 
erant center where everyone can have his own tastes 
and follow his own inclinations, is a joke. By this trip 
I have learned the worth of the uncultured corner of 
my forefathers—when trading it for civilization!” 

Naturally it follows that Pereda believes the people 
themselves, surrounded by the corrupt influences of the 
city, become worthless and unsocial.” He contrasts the 
difference in the people of the cities and those of the vil- 
lages in this incident: A man from Madrid, visiting in 
a certain small village, went to mass one morning with 
his host, and as he approached the church all conversa- 
tion ceased, the men rose, the children stopped playing, 
and all respectfully greeted him. “This show of defer- 
ence and respect affected the guest, accustomed only to 
the cold, egoistic contact of the people of the great 
cities.” 

But Pereda somewhat explains and excuses this un- 
sociability and this lack of affection for one’s fellowman, 
for he says that “he who has had the misfortune of 
having been born and of having lived always within 
city streets and among temporary neighbors, with- 
out other horizon than the two extremes of the 
street, with no other sky than the miserly strip 
glimpsed between long rows of buildings; he who feels 
himself dragged by the abuses of worldly life, by the 
fever of politics, money, or by the artificiality of spec- 
tacles; he who lives acclimated to the noise of crowds 


21. Escenas Montafeses, p. 217. 
i 22. In Pefias Arriba, p. 130, he says “‘Dondequiera hay hombres cutlos o 
incultos, hay debilidades y grandes flaquezas; pero flaqueza por flaqueza, de- 
bilidad por debilidad es preferible la de aldeanos.’ Again he says that it is 
those who have lived closest to Nature who contribute the best to society, 
Nubes de Estio, p. 312, ‘‘Vaya la lista de los hombres que allf se descuellan y 
se mueven y se dejan ver en politica en las letras, y en la banca .... y 
en todos los ramos de actividad humana, y a ver quien de ellos ha nacido en 
Madrid! Ni uno que valga dos cuartos!’’ 

23. Escenas Montafeses, p. 235. 


[79] 


and of machines and who, as if at variance with the sun, 
goes to bed at daybreak and gets up at fall of evening’™ 
is not deserving of censure. Such a person has not had 
opportunity to develop social qualities of friendliness 
and of brotherliness. He has been forced to struggle for 
himself in order not to be submerged in all the conflict | 
about him. He has had to so fight for existence that 
humanitarian principles could have no chance of devel- 
opment. Much greater has been the opportunity for so- 
cial development of those who possess the life-giving 
power of the country, without the fetters and impedi- 
ments of the so-called good living in the populous centers. 

In another instance he contrasts villages and cities, 
comparing the pretentiousness and the affectation of the 
latter to the simplicity and praiseworthy life of the 
former. Of the growing town to which Simon and his 
wife move, Pereda says there was no room for flowers 
and grass and trees because the place was full of huge 
stone-front buildings where were sold all the luxuries 
essential to a haughty people. There were found un- 
friendliness and selfish interests.” In direct contrast he 
pictures the village of Cumbrales in which patriarchal 
simplicity prevailed. “There in each house is known 
what is happening in the rest. Wherever the family eats 
and prays, there come the poor to weep; the abused to 
ask counsel; the neighbors and friends to chat and talk 
over the happenings in the village, though that event 
be of no more importance than the mild trouble of the 
son of the Alcalde. All these people have rubbed elbows 
in the church, in the street, or in the town hall, and for 
that reason, in the villages are found common interests 
and affection among individuals. From this fellowship 
of interest and affection is born the intimate somewhat 
patriarchal unity, which is not fruitful of ingratitudes, 
grudges, and offences.” With real affection Pereda 
speaks of beauty and simplicity of life in the village as 


24.. Discurso leido ante la real Academia espafiola, p. 14. 
25. Los Hombres de Pro, p. 26. 
26. El Sabor de la Tierruca, p. 124. 


compared to the superficiality of that of the city. “Har- 
mony with everybody and tranquillity at home, Pablo, 
that is to live.’’”’ 

In Pefas Arriba is to be found the highest expres- 
sion of Pereda’s social philosophy, his doctrine of the 
Simple Life. It has for its setting the loftiest part of 
the Montafia, the most isolated section of the province. 
Its whole theme is a plea for a return from artificial 
wants, social conventions, and petty ambitions, to the 
simplicity of patriarchal life with its natural expression 
of feelings and its spirit of brotherhood. The ideals of 
society so tenaciously supported by Pereda are illustrated 
in the life of a landowner and in his beneficient patri- 
archal relations to the rustic community. For years the 
ancestors of this landowner had held a sort of patriarchal 
sway over the people, and this chief of the clan thor- 
oughly appreciated the mission his family had handed 
down to him. He presided over the evening “tertulia” 
of the villagers in the kitchen of his home; he kept close 
to the life of the community, encouraging one person, 
restraining another, aiding the needy, settling disputes, 
holding together all the inhabitants in one great family. 

The old patriarch had no son to succeed him, so he 
called to him a nephew from Madrid. This nephew had 
seen much of the world, he had lived an empty and lux- 
urious life in the splendor of the city. At first it seemed 
that the nephew was so at odds with the new life that 
he could never carry on the task which the old man 
wished to put upon him. But the subtle forces of the 
Montafia silently worked upon him. The helpfulness 
and self-sacrifice everywhere apparent, the simple faith 
and unthinking courage of the people, the moral grandeur 
to be felt in the very spirit of the region, took part in 
teaching this young man and in converting him from the 
city’s artificiality to the rural wholesomeness, and in mak- 
ing an efficient and useful worker of an idle loafer of 
the cafés and theaters. 


27. Ibid, p. 111. 
[81] 


Finally, we have Pereda’s whole philosophy summed 
up in the words he has put into the mouth of a wise old 
man of Santander. In his words we find Pereda’s own 
defense of the rural sections, his philosophy of the sim- 
plicity of living, his desire for the simpler forms of the 
civilization of Old Spain, his opposition to progress and 
its ensuing vices: “You folk of the city are always de- 
siring something, and this something is precisely what 
we villagers have in abundance: peace of spirit. You 
have your sensibilities hardened, exposed to the friction 
of all the turbulent successions of the century in its hasty 
march; your soul is fatigued wandering through a space 
involved in difficulties, through atmosphere foul and nox- 
ious, through ideas revolving in an insecure and unbal- 
anced orbit. So many things surround you that affec- 
tion cannot be inspired before a new object presents 
itself, obliterating the affection of the first. We (thanks 
to that which today is called ignorance) have affections 
more limited, sensibilities almost virgin; the most com- 
mon event of your life seems to us great. We, who are 
scarcely ambitious, are satisfied at once, but you whose 
ambition knows no limit will never be satisfied. That 
you may see how much truth there is in what I am say- 
ing, you would have to see along with this modern San- 
tander, with its population of 40,000, with its monumental 
quays, with its showy rows of houses, with its cafés, ca- 
sinos, paseos, newspapers, inns, and its bazaars of fash- 
ion, the old Santander, a colony of fishers, with six small 
houses of commerce whose stock was brought from Cas- 
tilla by pack trains, without docks, without fashionable 
resorts, without other newspapers than the one received 
every three days from Madrid. Could you see both of 
these pictures you would not doubt which generation 
lived the more tranquilly and happily—if that genera- 
tion which is covered with the tinsel of modern wisdom 
or that one covered with the rags of our old ignorance. 
We had poor and you have poor; miserly rich existed 


[82] 


then and insatiable rich now. But you have made the 
poor haughty, and the rich deaf to the voice of the un- 
fortunate and blind to the aspect of misery. Light (1. e. 
science and learning) would be worth while if it found 
bread for hunger and a shelter to keep out the cold, but 
unfortunately this so-called light only serves to make 
misery and opulence more patent. In this age you see 
together one dying of hunger and another full to burst- 
ing. But in our inequality of fortunes there was good 
faith on the part of the rich and resignation on the part 
of the poor. Result: there were peace in the towns, 
happiness at the hearth, and great virtues in the hearts 
of all. If the real destiny of man is other than to make 
happy the family group gathered about the domestic 
hearth then I confess that our old patriarchal customs 
were a stigma that soiled humanity in the times of the 
so-called obscurity.” 

With the condemnation of new civilization comes 
likewise a condemnation of the devices of its dissemina- 
tion. Complete isolation, maintenance of national or 
sectional individuality, and an unchanging group can only 
be accomplished when there are limited means of com- 
munication. For it is by communication that social 
knowledge, new ideas, and new tendencies are dissemi- 
nated throughout a social group and between different 
eroups. Pereda, wishing to preserve intact the old so- 
ciety, opposed the railway, the press, and other modern 
inventions. For by means of these instruments it was 
possible for the villages of the mountains to be brought 
into closer contact with the outside world: 

There abound many evidences of his distrust of 
modern inventions. Concerning the railroad he says, 
“the locomotive carrying in its entrails of fire the germs 
of a new life sweeps away as it passes the usages and 
customs which have reigned here during many years of 
a patriarchal and an interrupted tranquillity.” Again 
in a manner which expresses deep regret he speaks of 


28. Escenas Montafieses, p. 25. 
29. Sotileza, p. 259. 


[83] 


“railways, devices of revolutionary movements and trans- 
formers into modern societies.’”*° 


A certain admirable merchant of Santander, one of 
Pereda’s finest characters, asserts that the commerce of 
the village would develop into pure gold if greediness did 
not cause the people to act unwisely, countenancing such 
a foolish idea as some people were advocating—a rail- 
way between Alar and Santander and a steamship line 
between Santander and Cuba. With deep feeling he 
exclaims, “Railways! Steamships! Ventures of insan- 
ity; tomfoolery of a restless people who wish to taste for- 
tune and who will arrive in the end at the epitaph ‘here 
lies a Spaniard who being well off, wished to be better’ 
if we go on managing with what we have, and 
being content with it; if we do not rush into disordered 
ventures such as that of the railway and of the steam- 
ship (which thanks to God do not go beyond an extray- 
agant idea advanced by four loafers) we shall be thrifty 
and happy.”** The words of this wise villager provide 
an occasion in which Pereda sets forth his own argument 
as to the value of the simple life and contentment with 
one’s condition. Pereda is very sincere in his regret 
that railways are breaking down the old customs and 
institutions and providing for the entrance of the mod- 
ernistic trend into society.” 


In the same manner he protests against newspapers. 
They are agents of progress, for they, | like the railways, 
are agencies of social communication.** The newspaper 
is judged to be the great medium of communication 
within a town or city, and it is on the basis of the infor- 
mation that it supplies that public opinion rests. Through 
the publicity of the press all the investigations, all the 
facts, and all the angles of a proposition are spread 

30. Ibid, p. 140. 

31. Sotiieza, p. 17. 

32. In the story Los Jandolos (Escenas Montafeses, p. 320) regretfully he 
says, “‘Since the railroads cross our peninsula and penetrate into our province, 
no longer does the jandalo come on horseback or lazy mule, and thus he has 
lost one of his most vivid attributes.’ 

33. ‘‘La prensa, metiéndose como siempre, en todo lo que no importa’’ he 
says in De Tal Palo Tal Astilla, p. 72. 


[84] 


abroad that the citizens may educate themselves, and 
that thus there may be formed a public opinion which 
rests on knowledge and calm deliberation. In this way 
the newspaper is a form of social control. 

Pereda realized that public opinion was influenced 
directly through the medium of the newspaper, but he 
believed this influence was wrongly used. In his age 
instead of teaching and instructing the people it was an 
institution of falsehood and deceit. Instead of giving 
facts to the people that they might deliberately form an 
opinion, it sought to create agitation and unrest. It 
was an agency which disseminated throughout the group 
a social knowledge that was detrimental rather than help- 
ful to society. 

In Pedro Sanchez Pereda criticizes the press at great 
length. He uses it as the model of all newspapers and 
finds in it the faults common to all. In the first place 
the editors and the staff of the newspapers were not 
worthy or able to mold the public opinion of the group. 
In general they were unscrupulous, revolutionary, and 
incapable men. The editor of the newspaper of Madrid, 
he says, wrote of theology without knowing a thing 
about it.** As to their lack of conscience there is evidence 
in the statement made by the editor to Pedro upon of- 
fering a position for which Pedro believed himself 
not capable: ‘We'd be in a pretty mess if we had to 
know to the bottom all the affairs which we discuss in 
our newspapers! Of what use is skill, of what use sub- 
terfuge and false doorways of art and language but to 
enter wherever we take a notion, relate and discuss what- 
ever we please, leave off whenever it suits us, without 
fearing that someone question us or close the door and 
cut off our retreat. One needn’t be erudite in that which 
one writes up for the press, one needs only skill in the 
use of words.” 

Don Silvestre, one of Pereda’s characters whom he 
exalts for love of his birthplace and his adherence to 


34. Pedro Sanchez, p. 81. 
385. Pedro Sanchez, p. 81. 


[85] 


the standards of the simpler society of Old Spain, sees 
one night in one of the salons a man who, in the midst 
of a scandalous scene of drunkenness and immorality, 
is more loquacious, more jesting, more impudent, and 
more unpardonably vulgar than all the rest. On learn- 
ing that he is the principal editor of the newspaper which 
he has so diligently devoured in his home, Don Silvestre 
in great disgust exclaims, “And do you mean that this 
newspaper which I read with so much faith in my home 
place is written by this man? That those articles in 
which the clamor for order, for morality, and for the 
good of the people is so great, were dictated by such im- 
pudent and demoralized anarchists? Those humanitar- 
ian words of philanthropy, brotherliness, religion, home, 
rights... . far/from being the truthiinysuch*papere 
are only sacrilegious mockery, an insult to God and man, 
an ignoble exploitation of the public faith.”’** 

Pereda points out that the simple, credulous village 
folk could be easily deceived by false words. “They were 
not sufficiently worldly-wise nor experienced in artful- 
ness to see that the newspaper of Madrid was the impres- 
sion of letters placed mechanically, and behind it all a 
man of common stature and of vulgar ambitions. Rather, 
they saw in the editor of the newspaper a person outside 
all contact with that which is human, a person of super- 
natural intelligence, a person completely foreign to the 
divisions of civil life; for them the newspaper was the 
catechism, the gospel, a catalog of truths incontestable 
and indisputable.”*” Therefore the newspaper as it then 
existed, without standards of morals, justice, and truth, 
was a tremendous evil as a social institution. 


36. Escenas Montaneses, p. 208. 
ieee biG, D.n £03, 


[86] 


III 
SOCIAL CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS 


Mores are social institutions respected and rever- 
enced, transmitted from generation to generation. In- 
stitutions and laws are produced from mores, although 
often the rational element is so strong that their origin 
in mores is not easily distinguished. Property, marriage, 
and religion are the most primary institutions. They 
begin as folkways, become custom, and, by attaining a 
position of welfare for the group, develop into mores. 
Mores arise from need and then perpetuate themselves. 

As members of society men act from instincts and 
sentiments they do not understand. From inherited cus- 
tom men act typically, and so representatively, not as in- 
dividuals but as members of a group. They represent 
the responses of the group to given situations. There- 
fore a picture of the social customs of a society is a pic- 
ture of that society. 

In order to indicate the society, the passing of which 
he so regretted, and in order to show the world what he 
called the best type of society Pereda pictured the cus- 
toms of that society. One of the most interesting cus- 
toms which he portrays and one that carries with it a 
vivid mental picture of old Santander and the primitive 
society to be found there is that of “La Buena Gloria.” 
This custom probably grew up as the natural solution 
of a problem which is met today by insurance agencies. 
It was the means by which this simple society provided 
for widows and orphans. Today the welfare of a widow 
is not the concern of the group, but in that time she was 
dependent upon the support of the individuals about her. 

“La Buena Gloria” is a very old custom whose origin 
is unknown. A certain bishop used all the force of his 
authority and fervor against such a profane ceremony 
but his efforts were in vain. ‘La Buena Gloria” in all 
its scandalous solemnity continued in spite of sermons 
and maledictions; it even succeeded in acclimating itself 


[87] 


in the modern atmosphere, and in Santander this custom 
still exists, though somewhat modified.’ Pu 
Here is sketched the story portraying this primitive 


custom: 

There had just been celebrated in the church the last 
funeral rites of a poor man belonging to the class of 
fisher folk. The cortége followed the corpse to the 
church, from church to cemetery, and from the cemetery 
returned to the house of death. At the end of the pro- 
cession walked the men, immediately after them came 
the women—all dressed in their holiday clothes. In the 
home, in the very room in which her husband had died, 
waited the widow and her three small children—all dirty 
and poorly dressed. The cortége entered, the men lined 
along the wall, and the women formed a circle nearer 
the center of the room. The widow hid her face in her 
hands and uttered sighs and groans. One woman, a 
close neighbor and an intimate friend, acted as master 
of ceremonies. She stepped to the center of the group, 
and affecting great emotion, said in a strong rasping 
voice, “For the eternal rest of the dead man.” At which 
the widow uttered another wierd moan, took off her man- 
tilla, spread it on the floor, drew back a step, and, as if 
ending a prayer, she said, “For the mourners.” Then 
the men and women began throwing coins on the man- 
tilla and in a few seconds it was half covered with money. 
But the woman in the center cried “More, More!” There 
were half stifled cries and suppressed excitement in the 
crowd. The woman taunted them with being stingy and 
miserly in their gifts to the poor widow. Suddenly she 
asked how many people were present and being answered 
fifteen men and twenty women she cried, “Then there 
should be thirty-five ‘reales’ here instead of the paltry 
twenty-eight which I have counted on the mantilla.” 
Other friends interposed for the widow, cursing the crowd 
for its niggardliness. Finally the woman emptied the 
coins on the mantilla into a fisherman’s cap and whispered 

1. Escenas Montafieses, p. 316. 


188] 


something to an old man who hurriedly left the room as 
if charged with a grave commission. While he was gone 
the widow and the crowd prayed: “May God our Savior 
take in his compassion the sacred offerings that have 
just been made for the soul of the dead one, may he rest 
in peace.” “Enel nombre del Padre, del Hijo, y del Es- 
piritu Santo,” said the widow crossing herself. The crowd 
repeated it after her. 

The old man soon returned with a huge jar of liquor, 
a glass, a plate of cheese, and a six pound loaf of bread, 
bought with the money donated by the mourners. The 
bread and cheese and the jar of liquor were placed with 
certain ceremony upon the mantilla which the widow 
had again spread out. A glass full of the liquor was 
given to her. Mid halfwild exclamations and cries the 
crowd besought her to eat and drink. With loud wail- 
ing and great emotion (all mere affectation) she shrieked 
she could not drink. But the mourners excitedly en- 
treated her to drink to the dead, and raising the glass to 
her lips she drank its contents at one swallow.’ 

The fun-loving Spanish people with their happy dis- 
positions make much of all fiestas and holidays. Theirs 
is a land full of traditions, and they glory in the old cus- 
toms. One beautiful custom was the celebration of 
Christmas eve when all the family gathered in the home 
to solemnize dutifully the “Nochebuena.” In the villages 
the night had special incidents connected with it, and it 
was always the duty of any member of the family who 
may have been absent from the homeplace to return for 
this one night. 

The whole family gathers in the kitchen to prepare 
the supper. What preparations and what gaiety! The 
dishes that Spanish people like best are prepared for the 
supper of Christmas eve. When everything is carefully 
seasoned and prepared they proceed to another operation 
no less solemn than the supper itself: setting the “pere- 
zasa” (table). The “perezasa” is a rectangle which hangs 


2. Escenas Montafieses, p. 316. 


[89] 


against the wall, fastened to it on one side, and placed 
in a horizontal position by means of a leg. This table 
is a cherished piece of the household furniture and is used, 
in the villages, only on the day of the patron saint, on 
Christmas night, on New Year’s night, or when there is 
a wedding in the house. | 


The supper lasts an hour or more. Everybody is 
talkative and happy. Soon there is heard a noise out- 
side. It proves to be a band of about two dozen boys 
of the village who on Christmas eve go from house to 
house to serenade. They sing until they are given some 
of the sweets of the Christmas supper and then they go 
on to the next home. After they have gone, the family 
sits about the kitchen, chatting and talking, until the can- 
dle burns low and the children become drowsy. Then 
they seek the repose of their beds.’ 


To Pereda the appeal of this picture of a society, 
simple and wholesome, was much greater than that splen- 
dor to be found in modern cities. In sociological terms 
there is in this region of secondary contacts, in which 
relationships are relatively impersonal, formal, and con- 
ventional, an individual gain. For a person has an op- 
portunity for personal freedom and individual distinc- 
tion which is denied him in the primary group. But 
Pereda believes this advantage far inferior to the inti- 
mate, face-to-face association of primary groups, the fam- 
ily, the neighborhood, and the village community, which 
are fundamental in forming the social nature and ideals 
of the individual. 

The “mercados” and fairs were great festival days 
to the villagers. Going to the market was not an every 
day affair to the villagers. In many of the little villages 
there were no markets; the villagers had to go to a neigh- 
boring town to buy. The day of the market was an occa- 
sion on which young and old dressed in their gala dress 
and went forth expecting a happy day. There were not 


3. Escenas Montafeses, p. 115. 


[90] 


many social distractions for which reason the people took 
advantage of such occasions as the “mercado.” 

In El Sabor de la Tierruca' Maria, and Ana, and all 
the young folk, gaily clad, are seen starting out early in 
the morning, walking down the long road to the market 
in the next town. On the road they greet others, bound 
for the same festival. There are women carrying bas- 
kets in their arms or sacks full of produce on their heads; 
there are other young folk from neighboring villages, 
as happy and as excited as they. Ana and Maria have 
long lists of things they wish to buy: from writing paper 
and pins up to the most necessary article of the house- 
hold. 


At last, the market! The cries are incessant. There, 
stall after stall, are all the things for sale: potatoes, 
flour, cheese, chickens, shoes, hats, mountains of bread 
—everything imaginable, and among it all the buyers 
and the curious ones coming and going, and the sellers 
shouting their wares. 

The fair which did not occur so often as the mercado 
afforded an additional opportunity for the people to come 
together in a social way. Here they had the opportunity 
of meeting friends they did not often see. The older 
people carried on business projects and discussed town 
and community affairs while the young folks made love 
and danced and enjoyed the social affairs. The fair was 
perhaps the most popular form of entertainment for 
the village people. It was so important an element in 
their social life and customs that it is mentioned on nu- 
merous occasions in Pereda’s novels.° In Don Gonzalo 
the fair is given its proper place in the social life of the 
people. Don Ramon was a great buyer and trader and 
therefore, attended all the fairs. It was at the fair that 
his daughter, Magdalena, became acquainted with her 
lover; it was there only that she could see him; it was 


4, p.223. 


5. In Escenas Montafieses, p. 55, he says, ‘‘The fairs are as abundant as 
flowers. Open the calendar and wherever you run across a saint’s day ex- 
pect a fair.’’ 

[91] 


there that she had the opportunity to mingle with, and 
enjoy the society of, other young people. 

Pereda portrays the charm of such social communi- 
cation when he draws the picture of a particular fair in 
one of the mountain villages. He says, ‘““What a pretty 
scene was the fair. Usually the spot was a small woods 
of oak and hazel, green, fresh, and very beautiful, and a 
serene, calm summer night. Closing your eyes, you could 
imagine yourself at the edge of a deep, still pond and 
you would swear that the frogs, in infinite number, were 
singing all at once. The sound you hear is the stamp of 
the fair: the sound of the “terranuelas’ of the hundred 
dancers, in time with the tambourines that the young 
girls play.”® 

There was one custom connected with the fair which 
is both interesting and indicative of the type of society: 
that of the “robla.”’ This expression signifies the treat 
at the end of a sale, after all the necessary writing and 
signing of papers. This is a very old custom in the moun- 
tain regions and shows the extreme simplicity of the so- 
ciety. Pereda gives one picture of this custom, and one 
is able to see the geniality, the friendliness of the village 
people, and that spirit of wanting to surpass the other 
in manifestations of friendliness and good fellowship. 

In this particular incident which Pereda relates, a 
country man and his wife have a stall in which they have 
two young cows to sell. The wife sits on a stool, and 
between mouthfuls of an apple she is eating, puts in a 
word or two while the husband makes the bargain. The 
buyer is a young man. With him is an old man in the 
role of expert judge. Gathered around are many curious 
ones who have had a hint of the “robla.” After much 
bickering and arguing the young man decides to buy. 
The little group becomes excited and they all talk at once. 
One of the witnesses is authorized to go for a gallon of 
wine to finish the business, or “echar la robla.” While 
he is gone the young man counts out all his money and 

6. Escenas Montafeses, p. 54. 


[92] 


pays it over to the seller. The witness returns with a 
big jug of wine and a glass. The old expert drinks first 
and offers this health: “For the health of all those pres- 
ent. May this pair of heifers be a benefit for many years. 
May we see each other in Heaven.” The glass passes 
round till the last drop of wine is drunk. Then the origi- 
nal owner of the cows, not wishing to do less than the 
buyer, orders more wine and it is drunk with the same 
ceremonial and same solemnity, however with greater 
loquacity on the part of the drinkers. 

It happens that the members of this group take the 
same road home. At the point where the road divides 
and they take their separate ways there is an inn. One 
of the men, displaying his geniality, invites them all in 
for another drink. The invitation is accepted and the 
author adds that only God could know at what hour that 
party concluded and under what roof slept our acquaint- 
ances of the robla of the two young heifers.” 

Another amusement or social custom that illustrates 
the simplicity and wholesomeness of the life of rustic peo- 
ple is that of the “Deshoja” or cornhusking. The corn- 
husking takes place in a big barn lighted by lanterns. 
In the middle of the floor there is an enormous pile of 
ears of corn, and seated around it are the young girls 
and young men of the village. They are busy shucking 
the ears and tossing them into great baskets. Suddenly 
someone may call “la mona” and the young girls scream 
and hide their heads behind the backs of the boys next 
to them. “La mona” is the signal that someone has 
found an ear that is nothing more than black dust, and 
he who finds it has the right to throw it in the faces of 
those about him. The merriment continues until the 
servants of the owner of the corn arrive with a kettlefull 
of roasted chestnuts and a big jug of wine.* 

In the absence of the hired laborer, this was the 
means of getting a great amount of work done. The 
corn-husking served a double purpose: it provided social 
“7, Escenas Montafeses, p. 51. 


8. Ibid, p. 254. 
[93] 


entertainment for the young, and it provided a means 
of farm help for the landowner. This simple enjoyment 
may be compared with an evening of amusement in the 
city: an evening in the cabaret, or the inn, or the club 
where there is rudeness and drunkenness so different from 
the wholesome, youthful pleasures of the villages. 

In the sea towns, especially in Santander, boat rac- 
ing was a popular form of amusement. At an annual 
festival which lasted for several days the great boat race 
took place. There were two boats in the race, manned by 
the best oarsmen of the village. All the people sat in 
the balconies and windows to watch the race. Every- 
where were flowers, and bright colors, and signs of fes- 
tivity. Flying conspicuously was a flag of the colors of 
Santander. It was the prize for the winning boat. The 
people had their favorites and there was much friendly 
rivalry and enthusiasm. Excitement was very great as 
these two little boats raced to a certain point at a distance 
of three leagues down the bay, and returned. 

In this festival, which afforded the great festal occa- 
sion of the year for the people, there were many other 
amusements and contests. Permeating the festive scenes 
were the laughter, the happiness, and the gaiety of the 
rustic people.’ 


Courting in the village in Pereda’s age was yet 
wholly spontaneous and natural. The women in this 
northern part of Spain were not yet interested in worldly 
affairs; their interest was primarily in the home. They 
had not become forward and bold; they were yet modest 
and retiring and womanly in matters of love. They did 
not enjoy the intimate association of men as do the 
women of modern society. The lover visited his sweet- 
heart in the evenings in the presence of the whole family. 
Most often the evening was spent in the kitchen, for that 
was the favorite gathering place of the family. A girl 
was never alone with a young man in the free companion- 
ship between the sexes that exists today. Once when 

9. Sotileza, p. 447. 
[94] 


Andres spoke of love to Sotileza alone she indignantly 
reminded him that she could not listen to anything that 
could not be said before her foster parents. The girl of 
that earlier society was extremely careful of her actions; 
she allowed no demonstration of affection and no inti- 
macy whatever. The contract of marriage was arranged 
formally by the fathers. 

Pereda indicates that this simple and natural love, 
this reserve between the sexes, insured a stronger society; 
it insured family ties and more sacred homes than those 
found in societies where association between girls and 
men is free. 

Before modern civilization reached Santander, before 
the power and wealth of this great city were dreamed of, 
one of the marked characteristics of that early society 
was the “raquero” or dock rat. He infested the docks 
and his only business was to appropriate for himself 
whatever had no known owner. He left his home, his 
maternal homeplace, and became an inhabitant of the 
docks at a very early age, gaining some sort of nickname 
for himself and soon becoming the close friend of other 
raqueros. Sometimes he was caught and put in jail; some- 
times he lived his whole existence sitting around the dock 
on a box smoking his pipe and stealing whatever he could; 
sometimes he changed and grew up to be a fine person. 
The author says in behalf of this type so popular and so 
common in that society, “From young shoots so worm- 
eaten and decayed very frequently come robust and fruit- 
ful trunks. The history of this town abounds in brilliant 
pages dedicated to the honesty, skill, and heroism of the 
mariners, many of whom in their infancy have followed 
the part of the type just mentioned.” 

“To write a book of the customs of the mountains 
and not dedicate some pages to the “costurera,”’ or seam- 
stress, would be to leave off from Santander one of its 
most characteristic traces. So well-known is this type 
in the towns that the weaker sex can almost be divided 


10. Escenas Montafeses, p. 50. 
asi 


into two parts: women who are “‘costureras’” and those 
who are not.’ These seamstresses worked in shops and 
were extremely loyal to their shop. They considered 
workers in other shops as rivals and would not speak to 
them or have anything to do with them. They had happy 
times together. Going to and from their work they 
laughed and talked with the young men on the streets. 
But in all love affairs and in all social life they maintained 
their group loyalty. This type of woman was not the 
typical Spanish woman, home-loving and reserved. This 
group had customs, institutions, and traditions all its 
own. They were a happy group who enjoyed the dances, 
the comradeship of their companions, and the pleasures 
of life in general. 

Both the “raquero” and “costerura’”’ were particular 
types identified with that early society of sections of 
Spain. They formed groups within groups. A profes- 
sion had bound them together into a class, and in that 
professional class were found principles of brotherhood 
and loyalty, principles fundamental to the whole group. 

Society of the mountain region was not greatly ad- 
vanced from its primitive stages as is shown by the be- 
liefs of the people. Certain things tend to show the prim- 
itive state of that society. For example, the people feared 
the supernatural. Pereda says that in the mountains 
there was not a single village without its witch. The 
witch was feared by most of the people and abhorred by 
many. They believed her to be the cause of all the evil 
that happened in the town. Believing in her magic art 
they asked impossible deeds of her. If one wished re- 
venge on an enemy he went to the witch for aid. Lovers 
went to the witch and sought help in matters of the 
heart. The education of the people of the Montafia 
had not yet reached the stage in which unexpected and 
peculiar events could be explained as natural phenomena, 
and the supernatural and unusual were attributed to per- 
sons filled with an evil spirit. In one of the towns there 

itso Ibid. epee Llos 
[96] 


occurred a street fight with the citizens of a neighbor- 
hood town. Immediately the old people of the town at- 
tributed this evil to the art of the village witch. Three 
of the prominent citizens hurried to her hut and threat- 
ened her with punishment if she did not stop the fight 
she had begun. Luckily for the witch a sudden storm 
broke up the fight. Had the storm not occurred the peo- 
ple in vexation might have driven the witch out of the 
village or so feared her powers that they dared not trou- 
ble her. 

In the custom of the “derrota”’, observed in each 
village, there is further evidence of a society not far re- 
moved from a patriarchal form. In the spring of each 
year the town council decided upon a definite date on 
which all cattle and herds were to be turned out upon 
the common grazing ground. This event was heralded 
with much ceremony. First there was a service in the 
church, then an elaborate ceremony of letting down the 
bars and fences of the common. This particular custom 
is that of an earlier form of society in which all land 
was held in common. It resembles closely a patriarchal 
form of society in which the whole group formed one 
complete unit, all having a common interest and a com- 
mon ownership. 

In summer when the water supply became limited 
and the grass of the pastures burned, it was the custom 
to take all the cattle of the village high into the moun- 
tains where water was plentiful and grass abundant. The 
cattle of the villagers were put into one herd and confided 
to the care of a man who took them into the mountains 
and cared for them through the whole dry season. In 
the autumn he returned and all the villagers joyously 
greeted him and their returned herds. 

In such a system of society of common interest, com- 
mon ownership, and unity, Pereda saw a group unit 
that formed a more perfect society than the modern one 
in which there were diversity of interests, selfishness in 
ownership, and strife among individuals. In Pereda’s 


[97] 


opinion, when society became more complex it began to 
degenerate. 

Pereda has faithfully portrayed the social customs 
of the rustic people of the villages. He has shown drunk- 
enness, false friendship, and many other evils. But pre- 
dominant are examples of unselfishness, strength of char- 
acter, resignation to hardship, and devoutness. 


(To be continued) 


[98] 


FACULTY NOTES 


During the present summer a valuable addition was 
made to the library of the college in the form of the Dow 
Collection. This contains about 2,000 volumes, depos- 
ited by Miss Margaret Dow, of the Department of Music, 
and established as a memorial to her father, the late Dr. 
James J. Dow, owner of the books. 


Mrs. Ada Wallace Roberts, chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Alumni Relations, has been engaged in an out- 
standing and constructive piece of work in the way of 
cultivation of the graduates of Culver-Stockton, espe- 
cially of the older classes. Her quarterly numbers of 
the Bulletin, including the Alumni Directory, are spe- 
cial features of her intensive program. 


The local student publications fraternity (honorary) 
of Gamma Upsilon, promoted by Mr. C. E. Spencer, 
iibtarian, and’: Dr.) W. EH. Schultz, head of: the Depart- 
ment of English, is being broadened 1n scope and launched 
as a national organization. Culver-Stockton will claim 
the Alpha chapter. 


Professor Ralph W. Nelson is serving as ‘Assist- 
ant in Philosophy at the University of Chicago during 
the present summer quarter. He had an article, enti- 
tled “Evolving Christian Ideas and the Problem of 


Terms,” in the July number of the Crozer Quarterly. 


Dr. Ferris J. Stephens, who furnished the article for 
the April number of this Quarterly, has done much spe- 
cialized work in the field of Babylonian research. He 
was associated at Yale University with the late Profes- 
sor Albert T. Clay, America’s greatest Babylonian 
scholar, and intends to carry forward some of the plans 
of his noted teacher for translation and publication. 


[99] 


Dr. Carl Johann, President Emeritus since 1914, has 
the distinction of having served as president of two col- 
leges. His term of office at Eureka ran from 1887 to 
1902, and that at Culver-Stockton from 1902 to Ig14. 


Professor Maurine Mays, of the Department of 
Modern Languages, received the degree of Master of Arts 
from the University of Missouri at the last commerice- 
ment. 


[100] 








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